At least they are all British, so if tax money is used to keep the royal family in their, very privileged, spot they (the British) can feel a sort of attachment when they see a picture of one of these royals. However, I do not belong to one of these tribes here in SA. I do not recognise these kings as such. So why are my tax Rands used to support them? Should it not be the members of whatever tribe's decision to keep and support them? Don't know if it's true but I've heard that the Zulu king's budget is in the order of R5 million a year.

It’s a political smoke-and-mirrors trick played by the ruling party where they exploit subjects’ culturally imbued loyalty to their monarchs and chiefs in order to secure votes. If, as almost all of them do, the tribal leaders command their subjects to vote ANC, most will obey without question. Since the ANC holds the parliamentary majority, it also gets a significant say in the amount of money apportioned to each royal house or chief. This sordid setup is sneakily defended as an endeavour to preserve cultural diversity and heritages. It all sounds very noble but in practice is a subversion of democratic principles, not least by preying on widespread misconceptions among South African rural folk concerning how democracy is supposed to work.

It’s a political smoke-and-mirrors trick played by the ruling party where they exploit subjects’ culturally imbued loyalty to their monarchs and chiefs in order to secure votes. If, as almost all of them do, the tribal leaders command their subjects to vote ANC, most will obey without question.

At least they are all British, so if tax money is used to keep the royal family in their, very privileged, spot they (the British) can feel a sort of attachment when they see a picture of one of these royals.

As far as I can work out, the British royal family is actually not supported by any tax money.

The very thought of tax payers having to financially prop up a non-elected leader strikes me as rather anti-democratic.